1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing method, an information processing system, an information registration apparatus, an information acquisition apparatus, and a computer memory product. More specifically, the present invention relates to an information processing method for registering electronic document information (hereinafter simply referred to as the document information) in a database such as a server computer or the like and then distributing the document information; an information processing system for the information processing method; an information registration apparatus and an information acquisition apparatus that are components of such an information processing system; and a computer-readable medium (computer memory product) storing computer programs for realizing the functions of the information registration apparatus and information acquisition apparatus by a general-purpose computer.
2. Description of Related Art
With the recent IT (Information Technology) development, an increasing number of document information is being created, and a variety of information processing systems for efficiently registering such document information and for distributing the registered document information have been put into practical use.
A general example of the information processing systems for registering and distributing document information is a system in which a server computer (hereinafter referred to as the server) which stores and manages document information is connected to a communication network such as a LAN or the Internet, an information registrant registers document information in the server, and an information user acquires document information into a client computer from the server.
However, with the above system using the server, the processing load on the server becomes heavier as the data volume of the document information managed by the server increases. An invention was proposed in view of such a circumstance, and, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-85578 (1999), this invention sets a condition for eliminating documents, such as the validity period or number of registered documents, in the server, compares the registered document information with such the condition for eliminating document, and eliminates document information satisfying the condition. With such a construction, the data volume managed by the server can always be kept within the processing ability of the server.
Moreover, when the information volume of individual pieces of document information increases, it needs a long time to understand the content of each piece of document information. Then, an invention was proposed, and, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-307745 (1998), this invention causes a server to generate a reference image of document information and uses this reference image as means for knowing the outline of an individual piece of document information.
However, it is not always the case that the reference image as disclosed in the above-mentioned invention of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-307745 (1998) contains information showing the name or mail address of the information registrant. Therefore, when an information user who views the reference image wishes to make an inquiry about the document information, this user faces the problem that he/she can not contact the information registrant.
Besides, even if the information user can contact the information registrant, the information user needs to let the information registrant know his/her desired document information among a plurality of pieces of document information registered by the information registrant. In order to specify document information, the document registrant must be extractable from the reference image.
In addition, when document information registered in the server was eliminated by a method as disclosed in the above Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-85578 (1999), the information concerning the document information does not exist in the server, and the information user faces the problem that he/she can not acquire the document information but wastes time and money to trying to acquire the document information.